Golden Slumber

From the trailer, this looks like an action thriller with good acting. Well, I made it 50 minutes because of the acting, but it was abundantly clear the trailer was misleading. This is actually an art house movie that, according to some reviews, is an "uplifting" and witty commentary on Japanese society.

Characters don't act like real people, and things are deliberately structured to meander and not make sense. What the movie seems to think is funny is either trite, lame, or, most annoyingly, disturbing, and there are no reassurances something horrific isn't about to happen any second. There seems to be a gleeful nonchalance at work keeping you from becoming invested in anything, and I had to check some reviews to see if it was worth sitting through another 90 minutes to finish it. After seeing a string of glowing reviews along these lines, I knew it wasn't:

"Most movies suffer from the need to explain everything. They do not leave any room for imagination. They are designed for people who love to avoid thinking and just want to consume what's put in front of them. The celluloid guinea pigs.

Movies that come close to what art's supposed to be involve the viewer, inspire contemplation and leave many things unexplained simply because art doesn't dictate perspectives, it opens perspectives. A great movie is a movie that allows us to see ourselves in it."

This is not a thriller to pop in for some excitement and get lost in; some say it gets better towards the end, but you'd better have a *lot* of patience to find out. See the twitch and meniscus reviews I added in the external reviews section for a couple of more realistic appraisals.

This is the kind of movie that loses the viewer's trust, much like the 'prankster' who says "Oh, your wife called earlier and said she was on the way here, but it sounded like she got into an accident and the line went dead" and then laughs at your horrified expression and chides your for not 'getting' their joke, and director Yoshihiro Nakamura is now on my 'avoid' list.

Aoyagi (Masato Sakai) is mistaken for a murderer and on the run from the cops. At first glance one would think it to be a simple suspense film, but that's not the case. Each character has a deeper motive. Carefree, open-hearted, soft-spoken, each character seems to have some sort of reliance and trust in Aoyagi.A married couple with child get into an elevator, standing alongside a suspicious hooded man. The elevator descends, and a long take follows them as they walk through the department store. Suddenly, the child disappears. In this moment the film has us nervously thinking, "Something bad must have happened."

With this powerful moment I'd recommend the film. Every scene in the film feels like a pure cinematic experience: when the company owner says to Aoyagi, "i know You aren't the criminal;" when we cut to the scenery outside the car in motion; when the child of the wanted criminal dies. Even normal scenes were certainly shot with meaning. The cooperation of Sendai City during the filming has a positive effect on the movie's quality. Extras who appear in the film for just a few seconds stand with consideration for their own significance, in turn blessed by a splendid film.

As soundly escapist entertainment, it's a shame the film hasn't been screened overseas since its debut in 2010.

This kind of amusing film is an example for what Japanese cinema is all about.

I have seen this movie at the Berlinale Film Festival in Germany. For a European, it is always interesting and challenging to learn about Japan. The Japanese culture is so different from the European, so you generally cannot take anything for granted. In particular, this holds even more so for this movie.

It is about playing with the expectations and breaking assumptions, of any audience, constantly, no matter whether it is Japanese or European.

Some examples:

Can you expect to start up a rusty old car sitting in a swamp for years just by inserting a new battery?

Can you imagine a serial killer that is actually a nice boyish guy which acts as a guardian angel sometimes?

Would a mother leave her 3-year old child alone for a while to help some fugitive, to secretly install fireworks in the storm drains? And so on.

That is all what I want to say about the plot. The summary line and these examples must suffice. The absence of any certainties (regarding plot twists as well as underlying assumptions) makes it also bit confusing, but in a good way, though. Still, I think this complexity puzzled many spectators, and this is why there weren't many questions to the producers and the main actor after the festival screening.

Oftentimes in the movie something happens that seems to be completely predetermined, other events happen in a completely unpredictable and even absurd manner. The fact the movie walks on the fine line between determinism and haphazard, makes it also very profound. It is also a statement about the Japanese society and its people - and the many transformations it underwent in the last, say, 100 years. In this movie, most people have a positive attitude towards live and outcomes of their actions, even if bad things happen... murder, betrayal, treachery. Don't take it all too seriously.

I realize that I am trying to unravel the this movie. I have never seen anything like that before. Enjoyed it very much.

Gotta give this one points for originality.

A none-too-bright (at least at the beginning) fellow is set up as the fall guy in a plot to assassinate the Japanese prime minister. He manages to elude capture through chance, and friends who help him, and sheer luck...again, and again, and...againandagainandagain....

Normally I don't watch this kind of flic, although I found myself thinking "but I watched Skyfall just last week...." But there is some great humor here, especially if you have some familiarity with Japanese culture (not all of the gags translate well). The "Death to Gropers!!" line in particular is ROFL funny...given all the sunny slogans that typically are written by Japanese kids in calligraphy class.

I did find myself cringing the third or fourth time a character sang the Beatles' standard "Golden Slumber", typically out of tune. Have the remote ready, and don't be afraid to hammer that fast-forward button.

You might like this if you can ignore the extreme implausibility of eg. your typical James Bond movie, and enjoy intermittent humor, and unexpected twists.

Thsi movie is based on the assassination of President Kennedy. A man who saves an idol from a thug is famous in Sendai, so everyone knows him. However, he is frame of the criminal of assassination. I enjoyed the scenes that compares his reality with his good old days. I was impressed with the scene that the former girlfriend exchanges the battery of the memorable car for the man and the woman to help him. The man remembers the events in the car, so these comparisons highlight that he is in severe situation. I also like the scene that the past friends tries to help him to avoid the police's chase. I can feel their ties because they believe that he does not assassinate up the Prime Minister from their serious and strong-willed expressions. It was also shocked for me that the police hits on the former girlfriend's face. However, I can understand the police's disparate persistence that he would like to capture him. I like this movie because I watched it with tension all the time. I also like the ending since the former girlfriend's daughter stamps on his hand, and the message summarizes the former girlfriend's feeling.